Baricev’s: a Biloxi landmark

Baricev’s was a restaurant that made its mark on Biloxi for decades and served as a symbol of resiliency.

The Beau Rivage has been a landmark on the Biloxi skyline for just over 20 years now, but before the Beau a lot of history took place on the site it currently occupies.

The story of Baricev’s Restaurant begins in the early 1920s with Joseph P. Baricev, an immigrant to the United States from what is now Yugoslavia.

After a stint living in New Orleans and opening up the Auditorium Restaurant in the late 1920s, Baricev moved to Biloxi in the late 1940s where he also entered the restaurant scene. Joe Baricev, Joseph’s grandson, said, “So, my grandfather opened a restaurant in Biloxi, in the early 40s, on Howard Avenue, called the French Café. And then in 1948, he decided to build a restaurant on the beach. This is the first Baricev restaurant on the beach in 1948. It was open in July 1948, two weeks from my birthday, before my birthday.”

Throughout the years, the restaurant saw steady growth, including the addition of a lounge and second restaurant behind the original building called Baricev’s Seafood Harbor around 1958.

However, the business suffered setbacks and a transition in ownership in the 1960s when two major hurricanes hit the Mississippi Coast. “Betsy took the first seafood harbor, and it damaged the one on the highway. So he rebuilt the restaurant over the water, repaired the one next to the highway, and then in 1969 we had another hurricane come through called Camille, it took both restaurants. At that time my grandfather decided he was going to retire and he told my dad, Joe, and my Uncle Bobby, Robert Baricev, ‘If you boys want to borrow the money from the SBA and rebuild, then I’ll get out of the picture,’ which they did.”

Resiliency is in the Baricev’s DNA and the restaurant regrouped following Camille with a single building on the water which become a popular spot for locals and visitors and was known for its famous stuffed flounder and ‘Oysters Baricev.’ “Even today I have people come up to me, I’m 71 years old, and ask me ‘when you going to open up Baricev’s again? Well, those days are gone.”

Baricev’s ceased operations in the early 1990s when the family leased the property and building to the Biloxi Belle Casino. The Baricev’s eventually sold the property in the mid-90s after the Biloxi Belle’s bankruptcy and the owners of the Beau Rivage inquired about purchasing the property where the resort currently stands.

Even though the restaurant is gone, the legacy and memories of Baricev’s live on through Joseph Baricev’s grandson Joe and many others on the Coast. “When I go by I look over there and I think I’m going to see Baricev’s, but it’s long gone, but yeah, it reminds me, I have memories.”